You Owe Me One More
by What'dIMiss
Summary: Noah is a college student getting ready for exams. A certain someone who'd been missing from his life decides to pull up to his apartment as a surprise. In the middle of the night. Established Nal, currently a one-shot. NOT a sequel to Caged Inside. See A/N. Still can't do good summaries.


**A/N: Hihihi!**

 **This is some AU Nal to add to the VERY small amount of it(this ship) that exist on this site. Nal fic number two. Will it stay a one-shot? Maybe. IDK right now.**

 **Written from a prompt as part of a challenge on the HPFC forum.**

 **Enjoy!**

When Noah heard a car screech into the driveway in front of his apartment building, he could've sworn he recognized the sound.

It was dark, the middle of the night. He was in his pajamas, reading a heavy volume by the light of a small lamp in a hard chair that was less than comfortable, studying for a final exam. He was on the bottom floor facing the road, so he could hear the car door open and close. Then footsteps.

His eyes were tired and needed rest, but he figured he'd see who it was, chase them off, and return to his book.

He heard the door begin to unlock. He froze as much as he could in his current position.

He was the only one who had the key. Well, he and two other people, and one was the owner of the building. Not likely his drunk self was driving out this late.

Could it mean...

He shut the book tightly closed, dropped it on the floor, stood and nearly ran to the front of the apartment.

In the doorway was someone Noah hadn't seen in time nearly too long to bear.

The man appeared to have been just recently in a fight. His clothing was at one point an orange jumpsuit, but was now torn and splattered with what appeared to be both dried and fresh blood.

He had a few dark-colored bruises on his face and on his arms, or what could be seen of them in the darkness of the room. One hand was bandaged poorly in a once-was-white scrap of cloth. The other was in a black glove that revealed strong fingers that could easily break a wrist or smash a window and not feel a thing.

The man's eyes were lined with what looked like bruises, but were really bags from no sleep for too long. His long hair fell over his left eye and allowed the other one to gaze upon Noah.

The man smiled a devilish grin. "Hey, nerd." His voice was deep.

Noah had appeared to be stunned before, but now he ran up to the tall man and embraced him. He heard him almost wince in pain, but then felt his embrace wrap around his body.

"I don't believe this... How are you here?" Noah asked.

"I was in the neighborhood. Figured I'd stop by, see how little trouble you've gotten into." He chuckled.

They stood in the near-silence of the dark apartment, the hum of traffic outside the only sound able to pierce it.

"I've missed you, Mal..." Noah was crying a little now. He didn't really care that Mal saw him doing so. He'd seen far worse.

"I knew you would." Mal now held the back of Noah's head in his bandaged hand. He pulled himself out a little and looked again at his long-unseen lover, like they truly had yet to see each other. Noah had weariness in his eyes, no doubt from the stress of exams and social pressures, but they still held that spark of fierce wit and intelligence that had drawn Mal to him in the first place. Mal smirked. "You haven't changed a bit."

Noah rolled his eyes. "It's been nearly a year. Of course I've changed. You can't expect people to stay the same forever." Pause. "But, I haven't changed too much. I still love you..." And he wrapped his arm around Mal's strong torso.

Mal smiled more, and they leaned in for a kiss.

Then, a police siren blared from the distance.

Their lips had just barely met when Mal pulled away, giving Noah an apologetic glance as he did so, and looking out the window through the closed blinds. "Oh, perfect, they've finally caught up with me." Mal laughed darkly as he looked back at Noah. "They can be so slow sometimes."

Noah rolled his eyes again. "Well, I can't have your hot sexy self splattered over the front step. Get out of here!" He said it like it was fairly routine, which in a way it was.

Mal laughed again. "My hot sexy self will. But you owe me a kiss next time we see each other, Noah-it-all."

"You owe me one more, Malevolent One." Noah smiled.

Mal smiled back, winked, then made his exit.

Not too soon after he left, there was a pounding on the door. "Open up! Police!"

Noah sighed. "The things I do for love..." He laughed to himself. "That gorgeous bastard's gonna get himself killed someday."

 **Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated! Any questions are too.**

 **Oh, and I do have a different Nal fic I'm hoping to post soon. I want to finish one of my other multi-chapter fics first. :) Just putting it out there.**


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